Don't Get Strung Out Over Holiday Lights

BY CORY FARLEY
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

A little planning and a few dollars worth of overpriced but ingenious items can have your house twinkling in a twinkling.

The first step is to get all your lights out and untangled, so you'll know what you have to work with. Be sure everything is in good condition and all bulbs are working. When some are burned out, the others absorb the power. That shortens their life and can be a fire hazard.

The standard advice for electrical jobs is ``avoid using extension cords.'' That's all but impossible when you're stringing Christmas lights, but do use a heavy cord and protect it from damage and moisture. Be sure everything used outside is rated for outdoor use.

Unless you have enough lights for a huge mass display, your project will look better if you keep it simple and straightforward. If you follow the eaves, for instance, keep the wires straight rather than letting them sag.

Attaching lights to houses or trees is much easier lately because of several new items. Plastic hooks that attach to rain gutters, reach under siding or slide under shingles to hold wires are available in home-improvement stores. They cost from $2.50 to $4 for packages of 12 to 25 items. All are reusable.

If you do the same display every year, you'll save time with permanent fixtures to hold it. Look in the hardware section, remembering that unprotected steel will rust and leave streaks on your paint.

Brass or vinyl-coated cup hooks can be screwed in under the eaves to hold wires. Eye bolts opened slightly with pliers hold more securely. Prices vary by size -- a cup hook costs about 15 cents -- and items in bulk are much cheaper than those in bubblepacks.

Another solution is to attach your lights permanently to a board cut to fit the place it will go on the house. These can be made in about the time it would take to string lights alone, but you do it standing on the ground.

You store the boards on, say, the roof joints in the garage. When you decorate, you simply take out each board, hang it and plug in the wire. No untangling, no repetitive stress injury from twisting in cup hooks and almost no ladder work.

For a few strings of lights here and there, you don't have to worry about the electrical load. If you light a large tree or do extensive displays, you run the risk of overloading your home's circuits.

Move things around, so you don't have too much plugged into one outlet. Turn some lights off, avoid using appliances and generally lighten the load.
If you still blow fuses, if your lights dim or if you see other signs of electrical distress, turn the outside lights off and have an electrician check your power supply before you proceed.